Rocky IV – The Touching True Story Behind Paulie's Robot

Critics damned the robot in 1985's Rocky IV, and Sylvester Stallone took the mockery to heart, removing the robot from his director's cut. But the origin of the robot named Sico is both personal and touching. Sico was a real world therapeutic tool designed to treat children with autism. Stallone included the robot in the script to benefit his son Seargeoh on set, so he could work closely with Sico's inventor Robert Doornick, and to raise the profile of Sico.

[ElvisChrist]

When this came out I was a kid and the robot was the best part, I can’t believe it was removed. I won’t be seeing the directors cut anytime soon!

[spookysammy]

Stallone cut the robot scenes to save money on royalty payments. Very touching indeed.

[Luschan]

The robot is controversial because it’s so amazing it overshadows every other actor in the movie.

[luisfelipeorozco]

I finally know what the heck that silly robot was doing there. I never understood and it was annoying. It's not like people -even rich ones- could order or buy one on a whim. Even to this day. The best technology has come up with is Siri and Alexa. Great that they got rid of it in the director's cut. Totally irrelevant to the core story.